


We Are Trying

by Averin



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Happy Ending, Hugs, Hydra Peter Parker, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Peter Parker Gets a Hug, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Avengers, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, and live happily ever after in the Avengers Tower, don't ask about timeline, mentions of wounds, they are family and friends here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23836717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Averin/pseuds/Averin
Summary: That’s when he fainted in the arms of Iron Man. The last thing he saw was Captain America running in the distance to fight some giant squid with another one on his head.At last, everything was going according to his plan.orHYDRA's brainwashing is nothing against IronDad (and Avengers in general)
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 212
Collections: The Friendly Neighborhood Exchange





	We Are Trying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jelly_pies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jelly_pies/gifts).



> jelly_pies, I mixed two of your prompts, "Reunion" and "I didn't know that about you". Hope you'll like the result!
> 
> I need to give my most heartfelt thanks to Wonkystank, who made a great work fixing all my mistakes. Without her help it would be not a story but an incomprehensible blubbering. Thank you so much! 
> 
> And my gratitude for irondad-is-cannon-bitch, who helped a lot with my misspellings. Thank you, friend!

The handler pondered deeply. 

“The boy is clever. Good in chemistry, tactics. Shouldn’t we use him the other way - teach him, get him to the lab…?” 

“He lived there for half a year.” 

“Not as a lab rat, as a real white coat.” 

His opponent – who was much higher in the HYDRA ranks – chuckled. 

“We’ve got enough of them. In our 'PR division,'” he said, and made air quotes, just barely hitting the handler’s nose with an edge of his very own white-coatted sleeve, “we have the best experts. Medicine, torture, inventors… We don’t have to waste a decade for a specimen who can pass school tests when almost any scientist could be ours in a blink of an eye. Do you know that if not for Stane’s greed we would still have Stark’s weapons and no Iron Man? This is time to change it once and for all. ”He sighed, and continued, “Of course it’s good he has some brains and, what else did you say, imagination? He’ll need it.” 

Handler nodded, but he was not so sure. Spider’s results in the school tests he'd set him would be considered high even at an excellent school – a remarkable feat, since they were not schooling him. When he was told what his next assassination would be, he made some clever additions to the plan. But there still was something wrong, some point maybe, or thought, or a piece Handler never managed to catch, a thing that made him itchy, made him argue with leader again and again in a hope to find, if not the wrongness itself, another decision. 

Or maybe he just didn’t like the idea of spending the excellent mind of the Spider for the dangerous mission that would almost certainly be his last. 

“Yes,” the leader said, looking at the Spider through the one-sided glass, “We don’t value him for his brain.” 

In his small cell the Spider was waiting patiently for new orders. He hadn’t moved in the last four hours since he hadn't been told to. When the door to his cell opened, he got up but stayed silent – he knew better then to talk. He learned it so, so long ago… 

“You did good on your last mission. You will be rewarded with the new one, important for the wellbeing of HYDRA and therefore the world itself. You will kill Tony Stark.” 

“I will make the world a better place,” agreed Spider. 

*** 

The Spider began the mission to kill Tony Stark by buying himself some second-hand clothes, blue and red, and made it into a half-decent superhero suit with a spider on his chest. He found a home in an abandoned apartment building, old, foul and mouldy, with no electricity or water, but with wi-fi (a real miracle - Spider hacked into it in a minute) and a roof high enough for his liking. He was grateful it’s summer, at least it won’t be too cold. 

The bad thing was he couldn’t just knock on the Avengers Tower doors and blurt out: “Hi, I’m a new superhero and a good boy, let me live with you, I’m sort of homeless.” No way that would work, but the other way was to get their – mostly Stark’s – attention, tame them, let them be blinded by his innocent eyes… 

_“When you look at me like this, Spider, it is almost hard to punish you. Now, bring here either a chain or a cane, it’s your choice.”_

…and when they drop their guard – fulfill HYDRA’s mission! 

“Breaking his neck or ripping out his arc-reactor will not be enough,” explained Handler casually. “By our intels he could inject himself with a fixed version of Extremis. We need to be sure. Kill him. Cut off his head. Dissolve his body in an acid or crush it with… whatever. You are a clever asset, so find the best way.” 

So, yeah, he needed to get Tony Stark’s trust and take him to a safe place where he won’t be distracted. All of that was not a five-minute exercise, but what Spider did have was time. For example, right now he had enough of it to recap his sob story. 

“My name is Peter Parker,” he announced out loud. “My parents died in a plane crash when I was four, since then I lived with my aunt and uncle. When I was fourteen I was bitten by a radioactive spider in a school field-trip to Oscorp. My uncle died shortly after because of me, because I was a useless little mutant who couldn’t control himself and could bring only problems to everyone around. Luckily before I could bring more damage and hurt my aunt even more, Oscorp found me and handed me to HYDRA. They trained me, so now I can use my abilities for the greater good. 

Oops, he totally shouldn’t go to Stark with the last part. But he has to remember how much he owed HYDRA after everything they do for him. They saved Aunt May from him. “Um. I lived with my aunt and uncle… When I was fourteen I was bitten by a radioactive spider, really, ecology in New York sucks, got super-strength and decided to help people, because I was deeply traumatized by the death of my uncle… What else? Oh? I want to make the world better.” 

So much better. 

*** 

“Aren’t you going to control him? Without our supervision Spider can disappear and we won’t even know about it!” 

“What, you don’t trust your own ability to break a human? A kid?” scientist chuckled. “Whatever. When he meets Stark and his boyband he should be clean. That means no contacts.” 

“But he’s done nothing for a whole month!” 

“No buts. And no eyes on him.” 

*** 

To draw the Avengers' attention was not that easy a task, especially when you're pretending you aren't trying to draw any attention at all. 

An attack by a giant squid on New York six weeks after the beginning of the mission helped a lot. Spider (well, no, Peter for this mission) arrived at the spot before the other superheroes, saved a few civilians. In the process, however, he also was bathed in a smelly disgusting ink which plastered over his cheap goggles and blinded him and thus almost smacked into a wall. Iron Man caught him and flung him off to a rooftop three blocks away from the fun. 

“Toddlers are not allowed in these kinds of fights!” 

Yeah, sure. 

By the time Peter cleaned his goggles and returned, everything was over and the Avengers had vanished. At least they knew of him now. Shrugging, Peter returned home with a good chunk of squid tentacle (really tasty with soy sauce) and ate fully for the first times in days. 

In HYDRA they had fed him regularly, except for times they tried to understand how his powers and metabolism worked. 

It would be wrong from his part to steal, it wouldn't fit his legend. A few times he took muggers' cash from their wallets if they were unconscious but tried not to knock them out too often. Legend, remember? He was nice as the friendly neighborhood spider and he had to be clean to meet Iron Man and make the world a better place. 

For now he made Queens a better place, a little safer, that’s for sure. And he gained some reputation for it – people waved to him, smiled at him, and all the videos on YouTube when someone managed to catch him had tons of comments, even if they weren't always nice ones. 

Video with squids had a lot of advice for how he could clean his suit from ink. Peter thanked everyone in the comments but he just stole new clothes in the end. 

One time late at night, he waited for the tired dark-haired woman leave the hospital where she worked and followed her car. He wanted to do it every time she had late night shifts, to make sure she made it home safe, that she wasn’t robbed and killed by some mugger, but what if HYDRA was watching him? “No contacts” shouldn’t mean “No surveilling”. He shouldn’t let this woman distract him from his mission. 

He never visited her hospital or house again. 

*** 

“You okay, Spider?” Captain sounded concerned. Why? Peter only handed him a wounded lady he grabbed from crashed car in response, she was to worry about, not him. “Spider? Want to go to medbay?” “No,” caught Peter. It was too early to ask the Avengers for help. “I’m fine. I’m good by myself.” 

He bent down in a bout of coughing. Smoke was a bitch. 

Captain handed the woman to paramedics, and waited patiently. He also offered Peter a bottle of water. 

“Are you sure about that?” 

“Yes” and it was the truth. He was good like that, swinging through the night streets and alleys of Queens, confronting bad people and helping others – maybe not good themselves, but in need of his help. He likes the wind, and swinging, and those sandwiches from Delmars, and how cool the flying on the back of the Iron Man suit was that one time… He feels almost free. 

Almost was the key word. 

*** 

It was still too early to go to the Avengers, but this battle was rough and exhausting. At the end of it Peter was lying on a pile of bricks, feeling every one of them through the thin layers of his suit. He looked at the sky, so bright he was on the verge of tears, when a shade appeared in his field of vision. A human formed, and since the battle was with flying calamari from another dimension (was it cephalopod’s season in New York?), Peter assumed it was one of the good guys. Hard to say which one, thanks to his crushed goggles and headache. 

“Okay, you are right, I don’t feel so good. Could you guys, um, help me? Like, x-ray and stitches sort of help?” 

“Really?” asked a heavy figure in white, red and blue metal suit, moving closer. Peter tried to get up, feeling not only being beat to the bone but ashamed as well. What was he thinking? It was Cap offering help last time, not War Machine. 

“Wait, wait, kid. Are you serious about it?” 

Peter fell back. Ugh. Bricks. 

“I think my something is broken?” 

War Machine stepped closer. 

“Do you want medical help? And ready to get it? No running away from the medbay with the IV still attached to you? No attempts to crawl away from…” 

“That was one time” murmured Iron Man taking Peter from the ground. When did his suit of armor become so silent for his enhanced hearing? Peter hissed in discomfort and tried to distract himself. And pretended to be polite at the same time: he was asked a question, even if a suspicious one. 

“No? I am smart enough to understand when I need medical help, I think?” 

That’s when he fainted in the arms of Iron Man. The last thing he saw was Captain America running in the distance to fight some giant squid with another one on his head. 

At last, everything was going according to his plan. 

*** 

He woke up, which was a good thing, in a moderate amount of pain, which was even better. And he wasn’t restrained! Great! 

Black Widow reacted at his unarticulated but gleeful moan by giving him a glass of water. Actually, she held it for him and he got only the straw. Hawkeye stopped him from trying to reach for the glass. 

Why were Hawkeye and Black Widow there? 

With his mouth not so dry and a head a little bit clearer, he managed to ask about it. 

“Someone should,” Hawkeye shrugged, “with your identity and all the jazz.” 

“Our medics don’t tolerate unconscious patients in masks,” Black Widow explained. 

Peter prodded his own face a few times with a hand which was not broken and therefore was not in pain and understood that yeah, a) he was not wearing his mask and b) if he only understood that now, they stuffed him with some really good drugs. He should be careful. 

“Has everyone seen me?” 

“Every one of Avengers!” answered a joyful voice from the ceiling. Peter casted an eye on Widow – did she hear it too? She did. 

“It is FRIDAY, Tony’s AI and a sweetheart." 

“Listen to her, or she,” Hawkeye pointed a finger at Widow, “will be disappointed.” 

“Um,” was the wisest thing Peter managed to say. “Hi, FRIDAY.” 

Then he turned to the Widow and tried to get up, but the gravity it seems was highly against it. Also, the IV… 

“I think I should leave.” 

“And Dr Cho thinks you should stay at least till the next morning,” Widow smiled. 

“But! If you’ll be a good patient, just as you promised, she will let you join the show,” Hawkeye added. “Now you should ask what show.” 

Peter raised his eyebrows. 

“Tony is going to burn your suit with all the honors and celebrations he could think of.” 

“What?!” 

Hawkeye pushed him down, careful and almost gently, as if he was used to dealing with wounded people or nervous children. Peter let him do it. 

“Relax, kid, he is not going to do it without you.” 

“But I should go! I don’t have any other clothes!” 

Then the thought came. They already knew the best part of his sob story, now they knew his identity and could put it all together and complete it. Was it for better or for worse? Was he still high? Because it was sorta part of his original plan. And now he was – not literally – closer to Iron Man than ever before. 

He became even nearer to it few hours later, after he got more water and sleep. Tony Stark himself made an appearance, chaperoned by Black Widow. Peter managed to sit up and greet them, Stark never bothered himself with the last part. 

“You are Peter Parker, teeny-weeny years old, run away from your home about two years ago. Am I right?” 

All Peter could do was nod. Tony Stark hummed. 

“I assume you got your powers just before you started your spider-ing?” 

Peter looked nervously at him, then at Widow. How much exactly they knew, what should he add to this? Some tears? 

“No. Actually, I got them right before… right before my Uncle…” 

“Okay, okay, kiddo, take a break,” for some reason Stark looked worried, but Peter braced his heart, made a deep breath and continued: 

“He was shot. I… I tried to help and made it only worse,” he shrugged off Hawkeye’s hand. “My Aunt didn’t want to see me anymore. And I don’t want to see her either! Don’t you dare to send me back!” 

“Kid, it’s fine, no one is sending you anywhere. Get back to bed, will you?” 

Oh. He was on the wall, with a blanket in his clenched fist. For some reason he was trembling and tears were not that hard to fake, it seemed. 

Stark frowned. Widow… was ready to strike, but he shushed her with a wave of a hand. 

“We could give you a pillow as well,” He said casually, “though the bed is much softer than the wall.” 

Peter let the blanket slip off his fist and climb higher, never leaving both Avengers from his sight. 

“I am not going to foster care either.” 

“Good,” answered Stark, coming closer. “Because what _I’m_ not going to do is throw an enhanced kid into an ordinary family. The problem is – listen to me very carefully – we cannot also pretend we don’t know who you are. So here is the deal: we will train you, I’ll make you a new suit that no squid could chew through and we’ll do something with your legal status.” 

“I am not going to foster care,” repeated Peter blankly. This couldn’t be real, could it? 

“Yeah, yeah, we've been there, done that,” Stark shrugged his shoulders. “I said 'we’ll do something.' Maybe Rhodey will adopt you, he was delighted by you, and this is a direct quote, “a very mature way to deal with being hurt”. He thinks you will be a good influence.” 

Peter carefully went down and let Stark help him to get to the bed. Everything was so impossibly stupid it shouldn't be real. 

*** 

It was. 

He was trained by Black Widow, Hawkeye and Captain America himself, though in the case of Hawkeye it was all about staying invisible. 

“I am not a sniper,” Peter tried to argue, Hawkeye brushed it off. 

“But you are not bulletproof, just like me. So how about a lesson or two to help you stay alive?” 

This was reasonable. Peter obeyed. 

Black Widow never taught him how to fight. She taught him where to hit so a fight would never have a chance to begin. It was for Captain America to show him how not to kill anybody with his enchanted strength. 

It was what he has never been taught in HYDRA. 

*** 

Doctor Bruce Banner looked more dangerous than Hulk, with his gleaming glasses and soft smile. He looked like he was planning something malicious. 

“Oh, you made a formula for this web-fluid? How interesting! Would you mind showing me? Maybe together we could improve it!” 

Peter walked into his lab with trepidation, only to find after a week of hard work that half of the problems Banner has asked him to solve were from the school textbook. 

When he brought this act of betrayal to Tony Stark (who was in the nearest corner of the lab), he just shrugged. 

“We didn’t want to make you nervous, kiddo. At least now we know that you are ready to go back to Midtown Tech.” 

Peter’s blood turned to ice, but it was the same soft expression on Tony’s face he always had when he looked at Peter. 

“You don’t have to do it. But you could. One day, if you wanted to.” 

*** 

That was the problem – he was not Tony Stark, the Iron Man anymore. He became Tony eerily soon and he was everywhere Peter was, appearing with snacks after training, or with snarky but not mean comments during them, with ideas at Banner’s lab, at the kitchen, in corridors, in Peter’s own room bringing him some tech, just chatting, or asking about his opinion of his future Spider suit. 

The last part would be much easier in Tony’s lab, but Peter refused to go there. 

Tony was still a target. Peter couldn’t do anything, but he was definitely not going to the place, where he would be alone with Tony and thus could get tempted to recklessly accomplish his mission. 

He had only one chance, he should choose the time and place wisely. 

“Peter? Peter, god, don’t cry, please! I didn’t mean it. The other half of the questions were from the MIT tests, I swear!” 

“It’s fine, Doctor Banner, I’m fine.” 

*** 

“Behold!” announced Tony two weeks after. “Here is the Spider suit, one and only, better than our own Spider could dream of.” 

“All my lessons for nothing,” Clint summed up, but Peter could say he was not serious. “Bright red, really? Why not glittering rainbow?” 

“That’s for him if he misbehaves,” answered Tony and, oh, he was serious. Cap chuckled, but Peter had enough. He couldn’t do this anymore, couldn’t stand this fake superfamily anymore. 

“Why?” asked he in a low voice. “You don’t pretend, I _know_ it, but why? _Why do you care?_ ” 

“Because we want to help,” Widow, who came to his yelling, said softly. Cap nodded. 

“Only help, nothing more.” 

“No!” Peter shake his head. “You don’t know me. I don’t deserve it.” 

“That is for us to decide,” said Banner. “You are free not to take the suit if you don’t feel like it.” 

“I’ll make you a Kevlar onesie instead,” added Tony. “But you will take food and roof over your head, and that is not up for discussion.” 

Suddenly Peter felt helpless, like that night two years ago, with Ben, and May, and… 

“I am not a good person,” he said weakly. “I am not.” 

He never saw it coming, but Tony hugged him, cautiously and gently, as if he, an ordinary human, could hurt enhanced Spider. 

“The truth is we aren't either. No single person in this room. Russian spy. Captain Righteous. International spy. Merchant of Death. Faint-hearted Hulk alter-ego.” 

He stepped away, but his warm hands stayed on Peter’s shoulders, grounded him, making him listen. 

“Not one of us here is 'good.' But do you know what is important? We are trying. We are making it better. We pay for our mistakes, learn from them,” he smiled, and it was the saddest smile Peter had ever seen. “We are trying, kid. Are you with us?” 

Peter nodded, not trusting his own voice. 

Later that night he walked out of Avengers Tower heading straightforward to HYDRA base. 

*** 

He had better reaction time than Black Widow. He was stronger than Captain America. 

He was crying, but he was not afraid anymore. 

It was easy. This particular base was so small, why didn’t he notice it before? 

They never managed to raise alarm, but somehow shot him twice. Not bulletproof, just like Hawkeye. 

It didn’t stop Peter from paying a visit to his Handler. Very short visit, Peter didn’t trust himself like that. 

*** 

His left calf was on fire, just like his side. His eyes and throat burned. All that he wanted was to lay down right there, on the rooftop, and wait for pain and exhaustion to go away, but he had more to do. More to try. 

Peter waited patiently for May to leave the hospital. It was good to see her for the last time, knowing she was not in danger anymore. He called FRIDAY from the base, so she could trace the call, and left a letter to Tony, asking him to take care of May. 

He missed her. He was not afraid to hurt her anymore. Maybe he shouldn’t be from the very beginning, his Handler was lying about lots of things. 

May waved to her colleague. She was smiling today. Peter wanted nothing more than fall from that roof and hug her, stay at their old apartment, walk her home from work, but one doesn’t simply appear after two years with superpowers and HYDRA under his belt. 

“It feels like you were waiting for me. Were you?” 

Peter smiled to the sound of Iron Man landing only a few feet away. Maybe, he was waiting. It’s better to say goodbye in person. 

“If you were curious, all the papers will be ready tomorrow.” 

This drew Peter’s attention. 

“What papers?” 

“What 'What papers?' Rhodey is adopting you! Good influence, remember?” 

“I’m HYDRA.” 

“I am sure as hell that you aren't!” 

The gold-titanium shell opened, letting Tony Stark out with his sudden outburst of anger. 

“Guess who caught all the bad guys on that base?” 

Peter was hesitant. 

“Me?” 

“Good guess. And who got us the other guy? Also you. And if you think HYDRA will give you a medal for it, you should have hit your head.” 

“I can’t go home.” 

“How about we start with going to the Tower?” 

Peter hesitated. He wanted to say “Yes”, but… 

“Let me say one more thing, kid,” said Tony. “All these attempts to be better? You're damn good at it!” 

Peter’s gaze was glued to Mr. Stark, in jeans and t-shirt, holding his hands wide open. 

“And I’m so damn proud of you.” 

Peter rushed in his arms, no force in the world could stop him from doing it. And this hug was the best thing he has ever felt. 

“Let’s go patch up your wounds,” Tony murmured a minute later. Peter blinked a few times, trying to get rid of tears. “Happy is nearby with the car.” 

Peter hugged him tighter. 

“I don’t want to be a Spider anymore.” 

“That was unexpected.” 

“No, I mean… I want it to be Spider-Man. Like in “human”, but…” 

“Spider-Human sounds stupid? Okay, Spiderling. You get it.” 

Peter chuckled. 

“Can we… Can we call May?” He whispered on the way to the Tower, and needless to say the answer was, “Yes, kid. Of course we can.”


End file.
